Just Chatting - Campfire

General Summary

As they exit the wine cellar Nari corners Ayen alone, "Far be it from me to tell you how to do your job but was he really worth sovereigns? What happened? Your threads look more tangled than a toddler playing with fishing line."
As Ayen pushes past, Nari calls out in his mind, "You don't have to talk to me Ayen but you need to talk to someone or she'll be the one who pays." He continues forward not addressing Nari. "Fine then," Nari mutters under her breath as she wanders upstairs. She stops in the kitchen where Azer hands her a steaming cup of tea.
She exits into the smaller room the staff seem to use finding some of the wardens. She places one mug down in front of an empty seat before sliding the other one over to Sarya . She pulls out two vials and touches her temple drawing out two strands before tucking them both back into a pack. "Right. So you still with the Untamed? Ayen says you're with Smiles but you keep saying 'my group'."
Note other's are in the room and Raijun is currently asleep at the table dreaming see Raijun - Ranking
Sarya makes the sign to ward off evil, “No, they were my old group. Not very nice people, but… I was deliberately blind to it.” She quickly tries to change the subject, “What are those… threads?”
"Memories. I'm old and I gotta remember stuff. Some people use notes but I find this is faster. How'd you end up with Smiles?"
“Anything you can do to help forgetting?” Sarya half jokes. “Wait, Smiles? I thought you misspoke”
"Nope. I do knowing things, not changing things. Never tried to take something. Wouldn't want to. 'Sides you need those memories. People always think they want to forget the thing that hurt us. But bonds that tie, that's what makes me me and you you. Without 'em who would you be? Would you make the same mistakes? You didn't answer my question so I don't think you get two. How'd you end up with the Wardens?"
“Oh we’re playing this game, I thought that we were just chatting.”
"I'm trying to figure out why your bonds look like they are atrophying before I help your group get back someone very important. You are either an asset or a liability and while I could choose to do this a lot more unpleasantly you all seem important to someone so I'm being polite. You want to chat? Convince me you aren't going to make this worse. I'll tell you whatever you want to know."
“I’m not sure that I’m not going to make it worse, but I am trying my best. If it will help save Myra I’ll tell you whatever you want,” Sarya’s smile has evaporated.
Nari pushes the tea towards Sarya again, "Look. I got no problem with you or what actions you've taken in the past." She pauses, begrudgingly, "I don't like not knowing things. I suppose you could call it a hazard of the trade." She pauses again, "And this whole thing feels like navigating a trail in a blizzard." Considering, "I call the young lady Smiles cause I won't ever forget her face the first time I saw it. Glowing like the sun and missing two front teeth."
Sarya softens at the image, “I don’t understand the whole picture either. We met in the Beholden Crossing while I was trying to find someone. Their flying ship was stalled in midair and robots and… unnatural creatures- an amalgamation of the animals we know- were attacking them.”
"Circumstances make strange bedfellows of us all. Just how many scrolls did you all have?"
“I’m not sure that I’m supposed to say,” glances at Adama, “are we alone?”
Nari's eyes flash indigo once more as she looks around the room, "Looks clear. I mean I would assume anything you say in the house will get back to the Lord and Lady eventually but you've already mentioned you have..." Counts silently in her head, "Four? I mean had. It seems like most of those are gone now?"
Sarya nods, “just the one that he let slip remains.” She sighs, “they couldn’t get hers off of her so they took her along with it.”
"Conjuration? It seems like if what the bards memories held were true they'd be looking for Necromancy."
Sarya glances at Raijin, “Well they succeeded in that at least.”
"No wait the one who is passed out by the mashed potatoes mentioned a schism in her personality. Conjuration might result in a simulacrum but not a schism. But none of the physical schools... Oh... unless she changed herself. That would take a tremendous amount of energy though not to mention how painful it would be."
“She did say it was painful. She asked me how it felt to wildshape, but it wasn’t the same at all.”
"Oh? Oh." Nari pauses, "Yes well... the transformation shouldn't hurt her per say. Unless she's doing something wrong or to make it hurt. If you have the anchor you should have move than enough power to make it feel however you want. But transmutation doesn't really deal in halfway measures. If she split herself she was ready to immutably change who she is. There wouldn't be a second version of her if she had succeeded. There would only be whoever was left when she was done..." She pauses again, "I don't understand how the transmutation scroll would help them though. The bard mentioned that they got more than they expected so why not just cut and run?"
“Greed, hubris? They knew she had one though. They didn’t bargain on her having two.”
Nari frowns, "Doubtful. If it had been easy sure. But you don't blow your plans all to hell without good reason. Groups like theirs they rely on information and surprise, if they had been able to get it back at the station sure plan went better than expected. If they had to take one of you to get their original objective sure. But to take her in this city. Is either incredibly stupid or they have a very good reason. Something that relies on what she had. I don't understand how they got her in the first place. I mean, Ayen has more contingencies than there are days in a year."
Nari pauses, "...Why wasn't Ayen with you?"
“You remember the schism in personality that we mentioned? Breaking out of that meant that she… asserted her right to be her own person and we left in a rush after that," Sarya explains. “We should have been more cautious but we were riding high after that.” Sarya looks dejected “I was just so happy to see her able to be her whole self instead of trying to fit other’s expectations.”
Under Nari's breath, "I warned him..." Louder, "That doesn't explain why Ayen didn't go with you or send someone though. If Ayen had wanted to tail you without you knowing he could. Especially if you were... Riding high."
“I’m sure that he could have.” Sarya pauses, “Actually it is strange that he didn’t have anyone watching at least. Maybe he was rattled by the gigantic dragon roaring about him betraying her.”
Nari looks genuinely confused, "Betraying her? Ayen?"
“Telling her to smile and enjoy it, even though I’m sure that he knew it wasn’t what she wanted. Not a direct betrayal, just not the support that she needed.”
"Well at least now his behavior is making more sense. And I'm going to guess, based on previous conversations, that no one warned him an attack was a reasonable concern? It seemed like he only found out about the warning sign when you were explaining Surrat to me. And that was maybe the only tip off?"
“Maybe. I should have mentioned him… but I thought…” Sarya trails off “coulda woulda shoulda…”
"We can only make decisions with the information we have available at the time. I only ask if there was anything because I know..." Nari looks to the door back the way the came, "he's going to blame himself."
“As am I.” Sarya glances in the same direction, “Smiles… I like that”
"And what are you going to do once she's back?"
Sarya is silent for a long while, “I don’t know. I don’t think that she’s perfectly safe even without the Untamed, who’ve been hunting me. I feel like I brought them down on all of them, on her,” Sarya’s voice cracks.
Nari sips her tea, "Did you help coordinate the attack?"
“At the station?” Sarya asks incredulously, “Of course not.”
"Did you have one of the objects they desired?"
“No, though they’d like me dead, I’m sure.”
"Did you aid them in any way to the detriment of Smiles or your friends?"
Visibly agitated, “of course not!” Sarya takes a breath, “I take your point.”
Nari sips her tea. "Is Potatoes going to be okay?" She nods at Raijun who has fallen asleep at the table. Azer in the intervening period has placed a large mountain of mashed potatoes next to him with what look like pieces of meat cut into dino shapes.
“He’s stress eating, I think. I’m surprised that they teamed up with The Immortals - usually we competed for contracts”
"Well if the bards memories are to be believed it seems that the Untamed are the contractors in this endeavor. But it is interesting that they would allow themselves to be contracted even for such a sum as was provided. These seem like items worth more than money. And who were they trying to prevent from having the scrolls?"
“Other than us, of course,” Sarya adds.
"Is anyone else in the group affiliated with or known to the Untamed prior to this evening? They mentioned a 'He'..."
“Not in the group but we’re friends with Yamil Alshara - his brother was pretending to be him in the subway, albeit not flawlessly. Alsume wasn’t a member when I was, but he’d heard of me it seems”
"Ah was he perhaps...?" Minor illusions a static picture of Yamil falling out a window.
“Yes, that looks like him,” she looks puzzled “where and when was that?”
Nari pulls out the jar from the interrogation earlier with orange starbursts floating in the blue memory, "Well that's a tricky question to answer." She swirls the memory in the bottle, "Cause on one hand I would bet money that was Fortis's tower before you all jumped from a window taking the blame for it's breaking. And on the other hand it didn't happen."
“It didn’t happen?”
"Nope!" Nari swirls the jar again. "See those bursts of orange? Someone tampered with it. I almost missed it at first. And someone really didn't want anyone uncovering what was under that."
Sarya leans in, now intent on the jar.
Nari places the jar on the table between them for Sarya to look at. The threads move and shift occasionally something almost comes into view before it shifts again the pattern resetting, "I'd pry into it more but the last time I did that my ear started bleeding and it felt mighty unfriendly to onlookers. I want to talk to Lylah about it more. Restoration of things like that is more her domain. But given the level of magic that came at me last time I'd rather we deal with getting the young lady home before we do anything too rash."
“I got similar backlash in Fortis’s lab, trying to restore a memory on the head researcher. Lylah patched me up but he’s still muddled.”
"Oh. Now that's interesting. One's an anomaly but two is a pattern. Did you get anything before you experienced the backlash? And what were you doing in the lab?"
“There was a familiar voice but I don’t know who. Something was taken from the lab- related to Stagwood Enterprises- but Myra thought that it had to do with a,” druid crafts a bobbing jellyfish.
"Well it was certainly your friends who broke in. I didn't see what they were there for. Familiar..." She pauses, "Like a friend?"
“Seeing Thueban in the subway put the pieces together for me. That he and some of the others were the ones that stole the thing from there,” almost to herself, “I wonder if that was what was in the birdcage”
"Seemed like the birdcage was related to an ill looking tiefling?" She minor illusions the image of Crypt, "Seems like it was one of his not yours," nodding to Raijun. "Does you group happen to know the current... wielders of the remaining three scrolls?"
Raijun stirs, almost like the enticing smell of potatoes shakes him from his memories as he awakens suddenly "Whoa. Who left the potatoes, is that for me?"
Sarya nods.
"I think Azer would be quite upset if you didn't eat -" Nari doesn't get to finish before Raijun does his best impression of a Dune Sandworm the potatoes and chicken nuggets stood no chance before the gaping maw the scene is quick and violent but over in a flash, albeit with some splash damage around him mouth still full.
"So whatcha talking about?"
"Well this explains why Azer likes him," Nari comments to Sarya.
“He could make anything look delicious” Sarya says with a small smile. To Raijin “Nari was asking about the other holders of the scrolls.”
"The not you ones."
"No idea who has them, just a general idea of the locations they could be"
"So you don't know who has the other mental scrolls then?"
"No and not like they would be easy to find, these things amplify and modify the schools of magic, whoever holds illusion or enchantment is going to be very hard to find unless they want to be found or the power becomes too much to handle," illustrating his point with nuggets.
"Yes it would take a certain level of.... carelessness to reveal the location of the mental scrolls." She pauses thinking, "Sarya was inquiring about a birdcage. Do you happen to know this figure," She creates a new illusion of Crypt.
"Oh yes I do, he has a remarkable ability to not stay dead. An agent from my former faction."
"The Bard seemed to indicate he may have some connection to whatever resided in the cage."
"Wouldn't be surprised if they used some sort of dark art, my former clan isn't exactly....opposed to any means necessary tactics. I strongly suspect it has to do with their interest in the necro scroll."
"Hmm it seemed like the scrolls were to go to the leader of your previous group," Nodding to Sarya. "But honestly it all seems suspect so it could be."
Indigo eyes staring piercingly at Raijun, "Just to be thorough. You have no allegiance to your former clan correct?"
"You caught me, I've been a deep state double agent for over a year, killing my own clan to obfuscate my secret plan to spy on you and take your nuggets" he says sardonically, insulted at the insinuation.
"Oh I'm sorry you said someone embedded themselves so deep Ayen didn't catch them at the party but it's crazy to think that someone from the same clan couldn't lie their way into a group of adventurers that happens to be collecting powerful artifacts?"
“I know that neither of us have the best background, but I’ve seen him with the orphans at the Temple of the Free Moon. He doesn’t want any kids to have a childhood like his own.”
"I don't give a shit about what you did, either of you. I'm not a saint. I care that you're both tied to the groups currently holding the young miss Stagwood and if you let those ties impact our attempt at rescuing her you won't have to worry about anyone else. I just need to know that the ties that bound you previously won't impact this job. If Ayen trusts you enough to be professional then I trust his judgement."
“We’re skipping past the part where you conspicuously didn’t notice that we were being spied on while in a secret room, that you set up," Adama accuses. " You’re right, if someone were to be so inclined why wouldn’t they look into Ayen and who he regularly works with, thus I find myself looking at you quizzically.”
"And like, even if I was," Raijun adds, "do you think I'd tell you because you asked directly, like isn't the whole point to lie?"
Nari turns to Adama, "Oh I'm sorry I was supposed to guard against an ANCHOR OF MAGIC? Something that was literally not supposed to exist?"
“You were supposed to double check that your secret hide out, was operating as intended," Adama cuts back. "Or do you generally not double check your work?”
Nari smiles sweetly at Raijun, "No one ever said anything about taking you at your word."
"So then what even is the point of you asking? It feels like your criticizing us from all angles but frankly, I didn't see you preventing anything either, so it feels unwarranted and frankly, condescending."
“How can a person so incompetent that they didn’t check to make sure the super secret location they set up wasn’t being spied upon, criticize anyone or anything," Adam adds angrily. "It’s down right so absurd as to warrant a question of competence or collusion. My intent is to say, hold your tongue and don’t accuse anyone of anything, you haven’t earned the right to criticize anyone in this group, and if you continue... Well, I have ways to making my point.”
Raijun, still mad but trying to collect himself with some Stillness of Mind and directing to Nari "Look, Everybody failed here, Ayen never caught wind of two separate factions sneaking into the city, your divinations didn't catch it either nor the spike in magical energy, nor did Sarya and I snipe out faction agents. We all deserve blame but I think what's more important is our plan to get Myra back safe and sound."
“People often look for someone to blame when things are not going as intended," Adama comments. "It is not wise nor helpful, it must better to learn the information that can be learned and move forward with a plan that takes into account the information that is known. This is to say, being accusatorial is never helpful in any situation. Now, what’s the plan?”
"I can tell you that Iroh brought his extraction & combat squads, but I don't think i saw anyone from the stealth units, ergo, there's a chance we can use subterfuge to our advantage as he planned more for a forceful extraction strategy. They blend in with the paupers so likely will be hiding in the slums somewhere if I had to guess, throw out some silvers and the people on the street become quite tight lipped..."
“Part of the first step of the plan has to be take out the person with anti-magic field. Raijin with your movement you can get to him quickly. We don’t fight them as we did last time, don’t allow them to choose the battle strategy. This means, we need to choose who is going to fight whom before we even arrive. Raijin, you shouldn’t fight your old master. Being honest he has your number. I would think the anti-magic person would be your target. Hagren or I should take Iroh. Sarya should probably take on the alligator guy. If Ayen takes Yamil’s brother, is that everyone accounted for?”
"There was a girl? When I scryed on Miss Stagwood." Nari adds, sipping her tea.
“Nari do you have banishment? We could tip the tables in our favor if we can remove one of them from the field. The alligator guy would be a great candidate. We definitely need a way to tip the scales, and currently if the fight proceeds exactly as it did last time, I fear we may have a problem.”
"Yes. I can banish someone. Provided I'm not kept in the anit-magic field."
“If Raijin takes care of whomever is holding concentration on anti-magic as his first priority. Then we can use banishment to keep the field tilted in our favor. That leaves who to banish, it would probably be best to do alligator guy. It works for Raijin to take care of the anti-magic person, because his speed, maneuverability and his shadow step aren’t magic based.
If we get the mage locked down," Adama continues, "Hagren and I could double team Iroh, while Nari banishes the lizard. That would leave, Yamil’s brother for Sarya, and then the female you mentioned, which if you can keep her busy that helps, hmm… Maybe you can Hagren take care of Iroh and I handle the female you mentioned. How many potions do we have available? Myra has the bag of holding so anything extra we had is gone.”
"Battle tactics are a good idea, but frankly, I think the more pressing issue is our approach to even get close right now. Both of our clans are expert trackers and subterfuge personnel, even the more combat oriented groups, we should tread carefully," Raijun comments. "I frankly don't care who I approach but I'd caution you to be careful around Iroh, he is deceptively powerful and has many hidden jutsus."
“Ya, it’s probably best if he’s double teamed. Maybe Ayen and Nari vs him.”
"If they all still attend the girl the area may be... Cramped," Nari advises. "I assume we should also account for the fact that two people who were previously less magical may be... Bolstered by their recent acquisition of items?"
"Its more like taking something that requires a small bit of magic energy and forcing ten times that through the same pathway in my experience."
"Well as their bard will not grace this plane again who would that be most likely to be with?"
"Pretty sure Iroh himself is going to wield it. He said something about me not using its potential, making me think he was researched."
"Ominous, interesting."
"Not the type to mess around, all seriousness, always has been. I think I got him to crack like 3 smiles in 18 years."
Nari says nothing but sips her tea and looks from Raijun to Adama. In Adama's mind, "No judgement or blame. But ties bind tighter than some expect. Or do you always discuss the smiles of your enemies?"
Sarya focuses on Nari, “For me, it’s not professional, it’s personal.”
Nari turns to Sarya, her eyes flash purple briefly, "Yes, I can see that it is." Turning to the entire group, "It's clear you all care about miss Stagwood. She is lucky to have such fearsome knights."
Sarya grins a lopsided smile, “She can hold her own- have you seen her fight?”
Nari raises her hands in a placating motion, "I meant no offense. But it is not a weakness to admit when you need assistance." Making eye contact with Sarya, "The world would be a lonely place indeed, if we walked alone."
Sarya meets her eyes before looking away, “I know that better than most.”
"If I were in such a position as her, I could only hope that I would have friends as brave as you all." Nari pauses looking down, "It seems I've run out of tea. I'm going to procure some more as it seems as though it will be a long night," Nari excuses herself exiting through the kitchen door with her mug.

Report Date

25 Aug 2022